Labour's Immigration Reforms: Balancing Control and Economy

Although the fires from the anti-immigration riots this week are being put out, a new fire is starting in the political sphere. Despite right-wing commentators stating that the Labour Party will open the UK borders during the election, Yvette Cooper has always been clear that she thinks “net migration is too high,” and this has been a stance that Labour has maintained despite left-wing commentators being critical of Labour’s response to UK immigration.

Labour wants to present itself as a centrist party that values reform of the UK economy, including introducing stricter immigration rules if required. You will note that Ms Cooper mentioned that “net migration is too high,” but she doesn’t say immigration is “too high,” allowing her some political wiggle room.

Effectively, she knows that major reforms are needed to reduce immigration numbers and train settled persons to meet the requirements for open roles. This is why the party that introduced the original points-based system and administrative hurdles such as the Resident Labour Market Test has its eyes on major reforms planned.

What is the Most Recent Update?

The government has instructed the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to conduct a report into several different sectors and different roles. In particular, she has asked for advice on the IT and Engineering sectors and for them to answer the following questions:

• “What types of roles are in shortage?

  
  

• What are the different drivers of these shortages, including training, pay and conditions?

  
  

• How have the sectors sought to respond and adapt to these shortages, beyond seeking to recruit from overseas?

  
  

• Where relevant, what, if any, impact has being on the shortage occupation list had on these sectors/occupations?

  
  

• What policy levers within the immigration system could be used more effectively to incentivise sectors to focus on recruiting from the domestic workforce? This could include whether the Immigration Salary List should remain in its current form.”

You might wonder why I’m quoting a letter; well, the reason is that the Home Secretary clearly has some plans to focus on the IT and Engineering sectors and roles that are on the current Immigration Salary List.

It would indicate that the Home Office is looking to take a stricter approach to those in certain sectors (including making the salary requirements very high) and removing more roles from the Immigration Salary List.

MAC reports in the past have not been known for being very immigration-friendly, and the Home Secretary is clearly asking the MAC to provide her with ways to restrict immigration without affecting the UK economy.

What are Labour’s Plans?

Labour introduced several changes during the King’s Speech, including the creation of a new skills organisation called Skills England that would help fill shortages in training with local workers.

Overall, their main aims are to do the following:

1. Boost domestic workers’ skills: through training schemes to address shortages and reduce the need for so many overseas workers.

   
   

2. Reform the Points-Based System: Many methods have been rumoured to achieve this, including further increases to the salary regime and banning employers from sponsoring overseas workers where they have not made attempts to fill the role locally (as stated above, this is currently only rumours, and we will have to wait for the MAC report to see what reforms will be put forward).

   
   

3. Crack down on illegal employment and illegal employment practices: You may have seen recently that Yvette Cooper announced that nail bars, car washes, etc., would be targeted for immigration checks. Anyone that does not have the legal right to work or live inside the UK would face the full force of UK immigration enforcement as returns will be increased.

   
   

It is also rumoured that those who do not meet UK employment practices will be banned from hiring overseas. Compliance checks will increase for all sponsors as a result of this policy.

4. International cooperation and returning people to their home country if they are irregular: This has been one of the areas that the UK has continued to fail at since Brexit. The UK didn’t want to work with the European Union until Rishi Sunak came to Downing Street. Better relations with the EU and other countries will assist with stopping people from entering the UK without a visa.

   
   

Those who enter the UK with a visa but overstay it or breach its conditions will be returned to their home country by the newly created Returns and Enforcement Unit.

The Home Secretary has set her sights on returning the number of people to their home country that were sent during the last Labour government’s last full year in government in 2009 (55,580 people) compared to the 2023 figure of 26,264 people (which was an improvement as the figures have not reached that number since 2016 when numbers were lower).

For example, in 2004, the Home Office enforced 21,425 removals from the UK, and for 2022/2024, this figure was just 7,016 enforced removals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Home Office wants to restore trust in the UK immigration system without harming the economy. I would expect major changes and extra hurdles like the ones brought in by the last Labour government in 2008.

These changes could be positive for UK employers, but Labour’s plans do not address the major issue: demographic changes that mean the UK will have too few workers in the future.